Yes I had one. It was unpleasant after about 3 rounds. Beautiful gun though.

Quick story. I was shooting mine at the range one day and this couple came by and set up at the other end of the line about 20 yards away. I was getting ready to fire another shot when my buddy notices that they got didn't have any hearing protection on. He taps me on the shoulder to hold up and yells down to them that this gun is pretty loud and they might want to put some earplugs in. The dude says "we'll be alright". I cracked off a round and they both about pissed their pants, packed up their shite and left without firing a shot.

quote:Its an old Wby Mark XXII I believe. My grandfather bought it for my dad and then he handed it down to me after graduating from my Benjamin pump. Still accurate as all hell!

Many years ago, my cousin had a 22 LR similar to that. It was a very pretty gun and was extremely accurate. It's only drawback was that if the action was not cleaned about every 50 rounds, it would misfire. He ended trading it off. To this day, there are times he wishes he could have it back.

Using factory ammo and the same barrel length the 300 WBY is faster and creates more energy than the 300 WIN. The 300 RUM is virtually identical ballistically to the 300 WBY. The primary difference being that the belted Weatherby hit the market in 1944 and the non-belted RUM in 1999. I've often said that Roy Weatherby was better part of five decades ahead of his time.

The 30-378 WBY smokes them both and was introduced in 1958 as a project between Weatherby and the US Military.

quote:I can believe it never caught on with the military, yet the .338 lapua took off

At the time the Army was looking for something a bit different than they would now.

"The cartridge was the product of a design/development effort of 1958-1959 between Mr William L. Strickland at the U S Army Ballistics Laboratory of Redstone Arsenal Alabama and Roy Weatherby. The research development contract specified the development/production of a single shot rifle/cartridge combination which could provide a flat nosed and based, 80gr and 100 gr projectile velocity of 6000 ft/s. The rifle was removed from the stock and mounted in a machine rest, the armor plate targets were 10' in front of the muzzle. The results of this testing have helped the Army in the development of effective battlefield armor and armor penetrators used on the battlefield today."